


can we go back can we go back can we go back

by elliot_cant_write



Category: Dublin Murder Squad Series - Tana French
Genre: how do you summarize something plotless without just ruining everything, i don't know why grass was what i chose to highlight here but, i wish it was summer so here we are :(, it's SUMMER there's GRASS and there's NO PLOT, listen to beach bunny while you read this they have the Vibe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:15:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22778554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elliot_cant_write/pseuds/elliot_cant_write
Summary: Julia popped her bubble gum again. “Kinky.”
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	can we go back can we go back can we go back

“Julia, I swear to fucking God, if you don’t stop I am literally going to take the gum from inside your mouth and dispose of it myself.”

Julia popped her bubble gum again. “Kinky.”

Holly made some sort of indescribable noise of frustration and dropped her book on her face. “I just want to finish this before the exam. Is that really too much to ask for?”

“Wasn’t it your idea to skip out on our study session to go buy ice cream?” Selena asked, moving Holly’s book slightly so she could resume the elaborate pattern of braids she had been putting in Holly’s hair for the past twenty minutes or so. 

“Yes, but it was Becca’s idea to work outside today. And it’s _hot_.”

Julia stopped popping her gum for long enough to respond. “Imagine how Selena feels, having to have you whole head in her lap.”

Selena waved Julia off. “I don’t mind. I like it when we all hang out like this. It’s nice. And I like braiding.”

“ _I_ don’t think it’s too hot out.” Becca was off to the side, trying and failing to paint her own nails while also balancing the nail polish bottle on her knees to keep it from falling into the too-green grass below them. “Holly, why’d you give me a bottle with an uneven bottom?”

“It doesn’t have an uneven bottom, you just have uneven knees.” Holly sat up, Selena protesting slightly as one of the braids slipped through her fingers and began to come unraveled. “Here, I’ll do it for you. And rainbow, too. That’d be cute.”

“I’d rather die than let Holly paint my nails rainbow.” Julia shared unhelpfully. She shifted slightly, trying to pull her shorts further down her thighs. “The grass itches. Why couldn’t we have gone somewhere with concrete?”

“Because I thought it would be fun to do our work out here.” Becca had relinquished her hand to Holly, who was very intently painting her pointer finger in bright orange polish. “Besides, you love me. So you agreed.”

Julia moved so she could wrap her arms around Selena’s shoulders. “Selena is the only one of you that I love. She would never tell me to stop popping my gum and she would never make me sit in the grass. Besides, who is working? Can you show me a single one of us who is working?”

Selena laughed, leaning back into Julia. “Holly was until you distracted her.”

“Holly was literally asleep. You couldn’t see her eyes around her book but I could and they were a hundred percent closed.”

Holly threw a handful of grass at Julia. “Traitor.”

Julia threw a handful back. “Fraud.”

Selena, ever the tone changer, picked a flower. “I’m going to make Becca a flower crown so she can wear it with her rainbow nail polish and be queen of the field.”

“That’s so fucking weird,” Julia tried for tough, but everyone already knew she would support Selena in literally anything she wanted to do, and besides, she was already picking flowers of her own “I’ll help.”

“I’m abdicating the throne to Selena but I’ll take the crown anyway.” Becca said, at the exact same time as she smudged her newly-done rainbow nailpolish. Holly may or may not have responded with every swear she knew. The “may or may not” was purely because nobody could hear her over the loud sound of a lawn mower starting off somewhere in the direction of the boys school, but all of them knew Holly well enough that they could pretty well guess what she said. 

“Oh, for fucks sake.” Julia squinted into the woods on the edge of the field, trying to see who had ruined their peace. “Term ends in literally a week. They couldn’t have waited?”

No one answered Julia’s exact question, but Selena loudly sighed as the flower crown fell to pieces in her hands. “I don’t think these are working.”

Holly, already forgetting about her hard work being destroyed by Becca, leaned over to assess the damage. “Oh, you can’t make a flower crown with those. The stems are way too short.” Selena looked so sad that Holly pretty much climbed back into her lap and put her head back where Selena could easily access her hair. “Don’t be too sad, Becca can be queen of the field without the crown. Here, finish braiding my hair. If any of it touches my neck I think I might die of heat exhaustion.”

“You’re all sweaty now.” Selena wrinkled her nose but still picked up the remaining strands of Holly’s hair and started back on her braiding.

Julia still looked pissed off. “I hate them so much. Why do we have to be next to a boys school? Is it a punishment? Is this purgatory? If any of those boys come anywhere near us I’m going to punch them.”

“I can’t imagine they’re the ones making all this noise.” Becca squinted at the trees too, trying to figure out what it was that Julia thought she was death glaring at. “Have you ever punched anyone before?”

Julia did not answer, and Holly and Becca exchanged a look. 

Taking the turn every overly-hot, overly-bright summer day did, there was a low rumble of thunder off in the distance and all four girls turned to look at where dark puffy clouds had rolled in unnoticed. 

“Are you going to blame that on the boys too?” Holly teased, already reaching to pick up their stuff. “We should probably go back before it rains. I don’t want to get wet.”

“It would be a good break from the heat.” Julia muttered, picking at the knot she had tied into the bottom of her button-up shirt the second they had gotten outside. “I think I’ve sunburnt my entire body.”

“I gave you my bottle of sunscreen.” Selena sounded as close to Holly’s done-with-your-bullshit tone as she was possible of getting. “What did you do with it?”

“It was too sticky so I washed it off while Holly was trying to decide which type of virtually identical cone to put her ice cream in.”

As the storm clouds blew closer, the wind picked up and Holly lunged to grab her book before it blew away. Selena finally stood up, brushing the grass off of her legs. “I hope we get a big storm. I like the noise.”

“Can we get going then? I’m not totally cool with the idea of getting struck by lightning.”

Becca rolled her eyes, looping one arm with Selena and one with Holly. “I wish I had three arms so we could all walk together.”

“Nevermind, I do want to get struck by lightning.” Julia said. “Why am I being excluded? And only having two arms is no excuse, Becca.”

Becca leaned around Holly, looking fake-annoyed. “Holly has two hands. Hold hands with her.”

Julia wrinkled up her nose. “Holly’s hands are sticky.”

Holly grabbed her hand anyway. Julia, to no one’s surprise, let her without comment. Well, without comment asides from mouthing ‘sticky hands’ to Selena. 

“I hope next week never comes and we can stay here forever and it will always be summer.” Becca said quietly as they approached the edge of the field and the line of trees that would lead them back to civilization. “I want to eat ice cream and braid hair and throw grass with you three forever.”

Julia reached out to poke her shoulder. “Bold of you to think I won’t drag you out in the middle of winter to get ice cream.”

Becca poked her back. “You know what I mean. I love right exactly now and I never want to leave.”

Perhaps fittingly, that was when the clouds finally overtook them and it started to rain.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi today I was going to write an essay about Dionysus but then I spent like an hour during class thinking about this and now this is a thing.  
> 1\. Title is from 6 Weeks by Beach Bunny. I was maybe going to make it "summer's gone, seasons change" bc also beach bunny but that seemed too on the nose lol.  
> 2\. I feel like Julia and Holly have the type of friendship where 90% of what they do is pick at one another. *throws grass*  
> 3\. I wish it was summer so bad and I want someone to show me this when it's 100 degrees and I'm complaining.   
> Thank you for reading! Tumblr is goth-icon-mary-shelley if you all want to be friends!


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